Published: Nov. 7, 2014
Spring vs. summer ball: The debate continues
Play in warm weather or during the school year are main
arguments
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Summer high school baseball coaches are seeking to double
its membership and want to do so relatively soon.
In a letter sent to high school coaches, athletic directors
and school administrators whose schools play spring baseball, the Wisconsin
Summer Baseball Coaches Association wants more teams to switch from spring to
summer.
“Weather is the No. 1 thing,” East baseball coach Mike
Heisdorf said. “You’re not going to have as many rainouts.”
Fifty-five schools play summer high school baseball in
Wisconsin. In Washington County, West Bend East, West Bend West, Germantown and
Kewaskum play in the summer. Slinger played its last season of summer baseball
this season and will play spring baseball in 2015.
Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Hartford Union and Living Word
Lutheran also play spring baseball.
“One of the big things is, I think, kids have the summer
free,” Slinger Athletic Director Dan Karius told the Slinger School Board in
February.
“A lot of these graduating seniors need to have full-time
employment to pay for those (college tuition) bills,” Slinger baseball coach
Steve Dummer said at February’s board meeting. “It’s easier for the kids to do
their camps. ... It makes it more of a school sport again.”
KML coach Darrell Washburn agrees with Dummer.
“We felt a little separated,” he said.
The Chargers played summer baseball as members of the
Parkland Conference. When that conference folded and KML went to the Wisconsin
Flyway, it went to spring baseball.
“One of the biggest debates is weather,” Washburn said. “To
me, it’s not the biggest deal. The weather is not that bad. Being a high school
sport, I like it during the school year.”
The points the summer baseball coaches addressed in their
letter include hours, money and headaches saved trying to reschedule games,
umpires and bus companies, the potential to add athletes to spring teams,
increase scholarship opportunities and maximize class time, instead of
releasing students early for games.
Debate has grown in the last few years of whether summer
baseball has a future in Wisconsin as a high school sport.
Heisdorf said there is a future, and others who field summer
baseball teams agree. Kewaskum coach Doug Gonring is another emphatic supporter
of summer baseball. However, the sport is lacking participation numbers, which
is why the future of the sport is in question.
In 1999, there were 110 high school summer baseball teams —
an all-time high — which included nine WISAA schools. Two years later, after
WISAA and WIAA consolidated, the number of summer baseball teams dropped to 99
and it’s been going down ever since.
Two of the biggest drops have happened in the last eight
years. In 2007, the numbers of teams went from 78 to 67. In 2012, it went down
from 67 to 56.
“I don’t want to play spring baseball,” Heisdorf said,
adding he and many of the other summer baseball coaches will continue to fight
to keep the sport going. That includes branching away from the WIAA and
becoming an independent sport.
Heisdorf isn’t a believer of summer baseball being
disconnected from the school.
During the spring, he said, baseball players have to choose
if they want to play baseball, tennis or golf, or compete in track and field.
In the summer, there is no choosing one sport or the other.
He believes summer baseball is another way for student-athletes to be engaged
in a school activity.
Washburn likes spring baseball the same reason Slinger does,
it frees up a student’s summer to do whatever he or she wants, which includes
playing amateur baseball through leagues such as Land O’ Lakes or Rock River.
There has also been talk about consolidating the sport into
“sprummer,” spring and summer baseball as one season. The suggested start date
would be around April 15 and the state tournament would be complete before the
Fourth of July.
“Sooner or later, it has to go down to spring or summer,”
Washburn said. “I hope it does soon.”
“But there’s a lot of tradition with summer baseball,” he
added. “It’s not easy to give up. It’s going to be tough either way.”
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